Featured Rider – Bruce Sharer

This month we’re going to start working on a weekly “Featured Rider” blog post. Every week, we’ll try to interview a rider and know more about our fans and customers. We feel this is a great way for us to learn more about you guys while at the same time, you guys will also know a bit more about your fellow riders.

Our first featured rider is Bruce Sharer. Bruce has been riding for over 45 years, he’s 61 now. He initially started riding on his friend’s 1967 Norton Atlas when he was 15 and hasn’t looked back since. Bruce added, “All my friends had bikes when I was a teen…my parents would not let me buy one so I rode friend’s bikes. Loved it!” I’m sure a large majority of us will agree with him here.

Over the 45+ years of riding Bruce has come across a lot beautiful bikes and has owned a total of 4. Bruce has owned a 1981 Suzuki GS 450, a 1984 Honda 700 Magna, a 1978 Gold Wing, and currently owns a 2004 VStar 1100 Custom. While Bruce currently rides a cruiser, that doesn’t mean he’s not up for riding a sport bike. As a matter of a fact, a few years ago he personally delivered his son’s Yamaha sport bike from Seattle to San Diego. Bruce noted that it was fun to ride but that enjoy having a sport bike but is the limited storage space could be a problem.

We should note that Bruce suggest every novice rider to get themselves good safety gear; gloves, helmet, and a Kevlar jacket. He knows a thing or two about other motorists on the road and has a good way of stay safe, “I just assume the 4 wheelers don’t see me and operate accordingly.” If only we all did that, we’d have less motorcycle accidents, right? In addition, Bruce is a firm believe in riding with a helmet, not just because his home state of Washington requires it but because he likes to keep his head intact. He currently uses a bright yellow Shoei modular helmet. Furthermore, Bruce is a firm believer of ATGATT (All The Gear, All The Time), even if its about 90% of the time for him. Bruce adds, “At 61, I need all the help I can get!” While Bruce knows this is a free country, it bothers him to see careless riders wearing t-shirts, shorts, and tennis shoes. He’s seen his fair share of road rash and knowing it’s very easily preventable bothers him.

2004 Yamaha V Star Custom with Hammer Series Motorcycle Saddlebags

Bruce rides around 5000 miles every year and a good two thirds of those miles are on 3-4 day trips he’s taken all over the United States. For example, last year Bruce and friends rode through Yellowstone and Beartooth. This year Bruce rode down the Oregon and California coast and then back up the 101 to Fortuna, California. He also rode to Yreka and then up to Crater Lake and with some meandering around eastern Oregon and Washington State and finally up along Mt. Rainier. Take it from the man himself, “We met the Cannonballers in Yakima their last night on the road and then rode with them over Chinook Pass and into Tacoma to the end of their cross country run. That was way way cool!”

BTW…..that childhood friend with the Norton still has that bike in his garage! He and his wife are Bruce’s main riding/touring companions! Cheers to that!

After riding for 45 years, Bruce knows he rides conservative but its worked well for him all these years and he doesn’t see the need to change his riding style. Bruce believes that “social, economic, race, religious, gender, and political differences evaporate when riding together” and that was the main thing that attracted him to riding. Through riding, Bruce has met many great people throughout the states, I’m sure we’ve all had similar experiences if we’ve been riding long enough.

2004 Yamaha V Star Custom with Hammer Series Motorcycle Saddlebags

Unfortunately, there are things we all regret and Bruce has one himself. Circa the year 2000, Bruce made friends with Graham from Manchester England. They corresponded, shared vacation pictures, and even exchanged Christmas gifts for years. They always talked about going on rides in their respective hometowns and showing the other around etc but Bruce regrets never pulling the trigger. Sadly, back in January received an email from Graham telling him that he was diagnosed with liver cancer and passed away the following July. Bruce’s regret is not about missing a meet or not buying a certain bike, his regret was about not sharing that ride with a long time friend, Carpe Diem.

I think we can all agree with Bruce, as he plans to continue to ride as long as he’s physically able to do so. If it comes down to it, Bruce has considered migrating to something like a Can Am Spyder to keep the wind in his face. In addition, Bruce has had good luck, thanks to his conservative driving, and has really only fallen once. His one and only fall was back in ’81. While he was heading to work a driver turned right in front of him. The sun was behind Bruce so it’s possible the driver lost him in the glares and Bruce went down. Thankfully for Bruce, he’s a big believer of ATGATT and while he had bruising, he didn’t have any broken bones or lacerations.

While there aren’t many things Bruce hasn’t done on two wheels, he would like to travel to the four corners of the United States, that is something he has yet to accomplish.